Educational Background /working experience
Dr. Deasy Simandjuntak obtained her PhD in political anthropology from the University of Amsterdam in 2010, with a dissertation entitled “Patronage Democracy in North Sumatra”. Her MA degree in International Relations was obtained from the University of Amsterdam in 2003. She was (post-doctoral) guest fellow and guest lecturer at the Southeast Asian program, University of Freiburg, Germany, and Postgraduate Dept. of International Relations and Postgraduate Dept. of European Studies, University of Indonesia. For the subject of elite-studies (social distinction), she was invited to give talks at several universities, including at the Maison Française, University of Oxford, England in 2010. Her peer-reviewed publications are on the subjects of democratization, decentralization, local politics, elite studies (social distinction) and research methodology in Southeast Asia. Her most current and upcoming publication is entitled “Doing Anthropological Fieldwork with Southeast Asian Characteristics? Identity and Adaptation in the Field” (with Michaela Haug), in Mikko Huotari, Jürgen Rüland, Judith Schlehe (eds) Methodology and Research Practice in Southeast Asian Studies, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan (in print 2014).

Research Focus (thematic)
Her research interests include democratization, local politics in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, and elite studies (social distinction). For the JARAK programme, Deasy has done research on the role of State-Owned Enterprise elite actors in the promotion of jatropha and the role of elite actors in the making of biofuel national policy. As a thesis supervisor, she supervised various student thesis that are in line with her research interests, including those on democratization in Myanmar, biofuel in Brazil, migration in the Caribbean, and social remittances and religion among African migrants in the Netherlands. Research focus (geographical)Her PhD project had focused on North Sumatra’s local politics. Yet for her post-doctoral work at JARAK, she did research in Jakarta, Yogyakarta and Purwodadi (Central Java).

2009. Simandjuntak, Deasy. The Quest for a Territory of Their Own: Elite Mobilization and the Making of a New Province in Sumatra, Indonesia. In ASSR Working Paper Series No.2, Amsterdam School for Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam.

2006. Simandjuntak, Deasy. Who Shall Be Radja?: Local Elites Competition in the Decentralization Project of North Sumatra, Indonesia. Jurnal Antropologi Sumatra, 3,1, May 2006, pp. 298-335.